Ah good ol’ 2019, where we all experience social media influencers constantly bombarding our newsfeeds with approaches to building wealth quickly. This is something that frustrates me so deeply every time I come across one of these individuals essentially selling lies. My goal here is to provide you with real specific actions you can take to put you on the path to financial freedom. Over the next few months I’m going to give it to you straight, no nonsense! The truth is that building wealth is NOT easy (don’t get discouraged, building the platform to generate wealth is simple). Real wealth is something that takes persistence, research, diligence, and extreme patience. However, in doing the right things consistently, anyone can build the life that they dream of. I want you to be in control of your own destiny, I do not want you to be shackled by the norms and pressures of society.
First, let me explain a little bit about myself and why I’m qualified to share my experiences with you that will ultimately lead to a bettering your financial situation. My name is Michael Teso and I grew up lower middle-class you could say. My three older sisters and my mother and father lived in a mobile home (trailer) in the bustling town of Mulberry, Indiana (total population: 1,200). I had a great childhood and have always been surrounded by supporting family and friends. However, by the age of 18 I had lost half my family to tragic situations which resulted in death. This was truly the first eye-opening experience for me of how cruel the world can be. I’ve always kept a positive mindset and that is the primary factor that got me through those challenging times.
Today is a much different picture for me. I ended up going to college (despite hating school and only wanting to work) and after I went to work for a friends father who owned a small manufacturing company. After about five years of working my ass off (I truly don’t remember much of those five years) I caught a stroke of luck (luck: when preparation meets opportunity) and was able to become a partner in that business. The rest, as they say, is history.
I’m only 34 years old yet business has taken me all over the world from China, to Brazil, to nearly every country in Europe, Japan, India, and the Middle East. I am an owner in a variety of businesses in the manufacturing, technology, biomedical, energy, and commercial real estate sectors. None of this happened by accident. I learned early on, that by taking small strategic steps, life can be molded into the vision of what one dreams it can be.
Presently I split my time between homes in Europe and the United States. I do tend to find it difficult to slow down so I have to constantly remind myself that it is so important to take a step back and enjoy the moment. To do this, I travel to exotic destinations to fuel my soul. I often find that when I return from these beautiful places that I am even more motivated to excel in my personal and professional life.
Later in life I began to understand how important education is. I’m not talking just about formal education, I’m talking about the power of knowledge. It is so critically important to feed your mind with information that truly INTERESTS YOU. Everyone is different and we all follow various paths to get to where we want to go. Along the way, don’t forget to absorb as much as you can because it will help you travel through the journey of life. Because I am so interested in business in general and have had experience in building companies in different industries, I decided to see how challenging and helpful an MBA could be. So I did just that. I went back into something that I so long despised, the haunting concept known as formal education. I have to say, it was pretty easy. Just like being successful in the business world, obtaining an MBA is less about your level of intelligence and more about work ethic.
I don’t think that society, specifically our educational system, does a great job of preparing people to succeed financially. What I am going to do in these blogs is to get very specific and detailed regarding financial matters. I’m talking about everything from a good credit score, buying stock of publicly traded companies, buying a home or commercial property, interest rates, SBA (Small Business Administration) loans, obtaining financing for a startups, cash-out refinancing, leveraged buyouts, and so on. In each article I’m going to cover a specific topic in detail so that individuals that might be interested in pursuing a certain business transaction will have the exact tools they need to succeed.
I’m going to be sure and start slow and build the stepping stones of how you can move into a position to make bigger moves. Everyone can do it and the truth is you can do it pretty quickly. In a matter of only 2 to 5 years nearly everyone can put themselves into a financial position to leverage their assets in order to process a larger business transaction. As I said before, building real wealth takes time and patience, but building the foundation to create that wealth doesn’t take so long.
I’ve been very fortunate in life and I feel that it is my duty to share real guidance on the steps that you need to take so that you can create the life that you so deserve. I promise that if you absorb the information that I share with you that you too will become financially independent and not constrained by the status quo which the majority of society follows. Happy Reading!
With All Kinds of Love,
Michael Teso
From Dirt to Diamonds 